Spinner Yasir Shah took prohibited drugs by mistake: PCB

Lahore, Jan 7 (IANS) The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday said it will appeal against leg-spinner Yasir Shah’s provisional suspension for an anti-doping code violation, adding he had taken his wife’s blood pressure medicines by mistake.

The 29-year-old tested positive for a banned substance after undergoing a random test during Pakistan’s One-Day international series against England in the United Arab Emirates in November.

“Yasir’s wife coincidentally is a blood pressure patient and he mistakenly used her tablet without knowing that it contained a banned substance,” PCB chairman Shahryar Khan was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

Khan also stated that the board was confident that Shah did not do it intentionally.

“We are confident that he didn’t do it intentionally. He is a very naive guy and took that medicine out of ignorance,” he said.

“Yasir’s family has high blood pressure problem and his uncles have suffered strokes and heart attacks due to it. He gets similar fears so whenever he suffers from high blood pressure he takes some tablets.”

The PCB chief added that they would soon file the appeal so that Shah gets a lenient punishment.

“The initial details we received regarding the medicine he had taken were incomplete. Now we have received the full details and our doctors have decided against asking for a sample B test,” he said.

“We are instead preparing to file an appeal on behalf of Yasir and expecting a lenient punishment as he used the medicine without any wrong intention.”

Shah was provisionally suspended on December 27 by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for breaching its anti-doping code.